Sunderland.

Despite a discussion about this game starting on the 'Artell out thread, I've decided to start a dedicated one here.
So, the big one(?). Definitely one of the fixtures I looked for on fixture release day. This year they've spent even more than usual on their squad and started well but have faltered a little lately. Currently, it must be many peoples' away banker. Historically though, Saturday's result was not unusual in that both sides were crap and needed to win, so we lost (biggest defeat of the season). By the same token, Tuesday's game often produces a better performance. However, there is little cohesion to the Alex at the moment and they are certainly not a settled side. We definitely need a team where noone is peripheral and everyone is full-on involved. So a solid midfield, not a 2 plus Finney. We know that we are weak on crosses and set-pieces so McGeady needs to be stopped. We need to press and to win back the ball in their half not retreat on being dispossessed. Only through fighting for it will we get a positive result from this game.
My heart says we will draw 1-1 but my pessimistic head says a 2-1 loss.

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Originally Posted by gazan

Despite a discussion about this game starting on the 'Artell out thread, I've decided to start a dedicated one here.
So, the big one(?). Definitely one of the fixtures I looked for on fixture release day. This year they've spent even more than usual on their squad and started well but have faltered a little lately. Currently, it must be many peoples' away banker. Historically though, Saturday's result was not unusual in that both sides were crap and needed to win, so we lost (biggest defeat of the season). By the same token, Tuesday's game often produces a better performance. However, there is little cohesion to the Alex at the moment and they are certainly not a settled side. We definitely need a team where noone is peripheral and everyone is full-on involved. So a solid midfield, not a 2 plus Finney. We know that we are weak on crosses and set-pieces so McGeady needs to be stopped. We need to press and to win back the ball in their half not retreat on being dispossessed. Only through fighting for it will we get a positive result from this game.
My heart says we will draw 1-1 but my pessimistic head says a 2-1 loss.

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I said I would try to be positive so here goes 0-2 however 0-4 is probably going to be nearer to the mark. Would be more than happy to be proven wrong because we need the points. 4-4-2 tomorrow night for me. However I think same personal and same formation will probably be the order of the day and Sunderland will be out of site by half time.

Don't know whether we'll get anything from the game but historically we always perform better against better teams, sometimes when we need to! I can see us being in it near the end, whether with a lead or a point who knows?, and then it all goes misty ..... We'll know in 36 hours.

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Originally Posted by Wartman

I said I would try to be positive so here goes 0-2 however 0-4 is probably going to be nearer to the mark. Would be more than happy to be proven wrong because we need the points. 4-4-2 tomorrow night for me. However I think same personal and same formation will probably be the order of the day and Sunderland will be out of site by half time.

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🤔 I defy anybody to be positive about that utter shambles tonight, Spineless, Gutless, and clueless. We do not look like scoring. Spot the pattern

Mandaron isolated
Midfield anonymous
Defence overrun

The only players in red shirts that can hold their heads high is the keeper and Robertson, Gomes tried when he came on the rest absolute garbage.

Although I do have to say I blame Artell100% he is just making it up has he goes along absolutely no game plan again tonight and I have absolutely no idea what he does when out on the training ground and revising the video of the last game Eat, Sleep and repeat. Utter clown !!!!

It wasn't a shambles....yes Sunderland were better than us all over the pitch, and they took their chances. You would kind of expect that given their resources. They were also very good at professional fouls, every and I mean everytime we broke...foul! and the ref only started to do something about it halfway through the second half. I thought given the quality in their midfield, we actually stood up to them pretty well, and I think the whole team actually worked hard, can't criticise them for effort.

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Originally Posted by RedandWhiteSpartan

It wasn't a shambles....yes Sunderland were better than us all over the pitch, and they took their chances. You would kind of expect that given their resources. They were also very good at professional fouls, every and I mean everytime we broke...foul! and the ref only started to do something about it halfway through the second half. I thought given the quality in their midfield, we actually stood up to them pretty well, and I think the whole team actually worked hard, can't criticise them for effort.

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Well said. We were beaten by better players tonight. There was no shortage of effort from start to finish. Defensive mistakes cost us but there is no saying that without those mistakes we wouldn;t still have lost. Goal threat needs to improve, and the defence need to stop dropping clangers but that level of effort and quality in our build up play will start to bring results. As for the clamour in certain quarters for the removal of the manager. Well, I have never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life.

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Originally Posted by Timmy58

Well said. We were beaten by better players tonight. There was no shortage of effort from start to finish. Defensive mistakes cost us but there is no saying that without those mistakes we wouldn;t still have lost. Goal threat needs to improve, and the defence need to stop dropping clangers but that level of effort and quality in our build up play will start to bring results. As for the clamour in certain quarters for the removal of the manager. Well, I have never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life.

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Well I look at games in a different way, firstly if you looked at our attacking threat no existent Mandaron isolated ball punted up to him at head height he has to head it back almost 20 yds to the next Crewe player why ? Because the midfield is pushing our defensive line further back than it needs to be their central midfielders will never have so much time and space in all their lives and this not that they are better than us or have more budget than us,we tactically we’re very poor. Why at corners do we not leave 1 or 2 players up ? We can’t defend set pieces with the box full, maybe leave a couple of players up that usually means they will leave 3 to cope with them. I think if their were any tactics tonight from Artell it was damage limitation tactics. If by effort mentioned you mean running to the edge of our box when Sunderland had the ball tick, if effort was hiding when we had the ball giving the man on the ball the only option of punting it forward to a Sunderland player tick. I as much as anybody wish to see this club successful but I am afraid tonight and last Saturday we were 1 million miles away from that. It is not the fact we are losing it is the manner in which we are losing.

Can't believe Gomes has been singled out for making an impact when he came on as sub - must have been a different game as the one I was watching he was anonymous for the 36 minutes he was on the pitch, while Kashket injected pace and desire in the same time. Sadly Bennett had never really got into the game apart from looking injured at half time.

Positives - we looked decent in the first 25 minutes till the blow of the own goal, getting into their box and Long working hard on his home debut - bit more match fitness and he may be our fox in the box. Apart from that the team did at least keep running and trying to the end, but it was one of those nights where we wouldn't have scored in another 90 minutes.

I wasn't there so not qualified to comment but watching the highlights think we are doomed with that defence and looked worse than a Sunday League team. I don't expect DA to criticise his players but he is beginning to sound like Steve Davis that if it wasn't for the goals we could have won the game etc.

Sorry guys but can't see us winning many games with that team...13 games and one win is decidedly relegation form for but Crewe don't sack managers and why its useless to call for his sacking. They have a few million in the bank now and think they struck gold as none of them are getting games when I have looked at the starting line ups and so silver lining and all that hey?

We could be changing places with the Vale come next season...;)

I have to say I am beginning to worry now and to a small degree, agree with some of Wartman's comment. The formation,3-4-3, was just too silly for words. My main problem with this is the idea of having 3 slow CHs at the back to face a quick opposition with a renowned winger like McGeady. It's no accident that they created a lot of chances at pace.
Another main criticism is the amount of fiddling about with the line-up which means there is no sense of a settled side. For Fanhub, I have to predict the team but since the first few games I have frequently got a least 3 wrong as the lineup is becoming unpredictable. Who is Artell's best team, does he know?
Two other issues: dead ball situations seem to be a mystery to the club. We always have 11 players in the box for corners but we don't seem to be able to stop the opposition scoring. Not only that but our defenders don't tend to get off the ground. Surely this is what they should have been working on during the international break! And worse.... conceding goals from OUR OWN CORNERS????? This is becoming a regular, but not yet frequent, occurence. This happens enough to let us know that other clubs know about this weakness.
The other issue is the bluntness of our attack. Basically, we do not put enough pressure on the box. We seem to reach level with the box and then follow an arc around the box without actually getting inside. That's at best. More often, the ball goes back to the half-way line and allows the opposition to regroup.
One other item to mention, the slow play out from the back. Our possession statistics are often boosted by our two CHs playing passy-passy with each other without actually getting anywhere. The opposition now press us into and around our box. That should mean that they are thinner around the middle and at the back. So why do we not mix it up but with a bit of pace? Even when Will goes long, it takes so long that the opposition are fully in position by the time the kick is taken.
The next two games don't give us much hope but we need some kind of consistency soon or it is going to be a miserably long season.